A 22-year-old black man stands with his hands clasped behind his back as the prosecution reads charges to the judge.

Low-level assault, a class D felony. Recommended bail? $75,000.

It's 6:45 PM on a Saturday evening at Brooklyn Criminal Court, and the audience is comprised mostly of family members—some of whom will wait until one in the morning for their loved ones to be called. In New York City, about 45,500 people are held in jail each year because they can't afford bail. The decision to send defendants home or to the notorious jail complex on Rikers Island—where they would await trial—is made during the few minutes they stand in front of a judge, often after spending about 22 hours in a New York Police Department (NYPD) holding cell.

But as of this month, there's a third option for people charged with misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies in all five boroughs: supervised release.

The judge, visibly tired, rests his forehead in the space between his thumb and index finger as he reviews the young man's file. He gazes into the audience and asks an officer to locate the supervised release court liaison. A few minutes later, Brooklyn Justice Initiatives (BJI) Program Director Jessica Kay comes running in and approaches the bench. She takes the man's case file from a defense attorney and says she has to go upstairs to her office to check on his eligibility.

The city government's interest in shrinking the population at Rikers by assessing the risk of re-offense—rather than a defendant's ability to pay—is part of what bail expert and legal scholar Tim Schnacke of the Center for Legal and Evidence-Based Practices calls "a full-blown bail reform movement."

"Bail reform is the low-hanging fruit of criminal justice reform," he tells me. "We are violating the rights of people across the country every day by doing the things we think are normal to do."

The city has invested $17.8 million in supervised release programs across the five boroughs. The Center for Court Innovation received the largest contract, of $7 million, to expand its pilot program in Brooklyn to the Bronx and Staten Island beginning March 1. The New York Criminal Justice Agency and the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services received funding to expand similar programs that have been up and running in Queens and Manhattan since 2009 and 2013, respectively. Citywide, Mayor Bill de Blasio's office estimates these programs will be able to supervise around 3,000 people over the course of the year, and will reduce the city's daily jail population—which is about 10,000—by 205 over the next three years.

Another man charged with a traffic violation and driving while intoxicated steps before the judge. The prosecution requests bail be set at $5,000, but again, the defense attorney wants supervised release, pointing out the man has an 11-year-old son and a part-time job. The BJI court liaison interviews the man through a caged window in a tiny room behind a door near where the judge sits, and succeeds in reaching someone from the man's life—a requirement of the program.

The judge sides with the defense, sparing the man a stay on New York's floating jail, known for its slashings and stabbings. Even a week in Rikers without violence can make someone more likely to get arrested once his or her case is over—and have a lasting, negative impact on quality of life.

Brooklyn Justice Initiatives Deputy Project Director Jonathan Monsalve speaks with Program Director Jessica Kay at Brooklyn Criminal Court. All photos by Caroline Cannon

Eligibility for supervised release in New York is determined by a risk-assessment tool that consists of eight questions, including the defendant's number of felony convictions in the last nine years, prior warrants, and their full-time activity. Supervision can range from weekly to monthly in-person visits and phone calls, depending on the person's risk assessment score.

But even as they cheer the prospect of keeping more people out of jail, some criminal justice reformers worry risk-assessment algorithms might exclude people from the program who need it the most—and fear additional monitoring of already over-policed areas like the Bronx could make things worse.

Robyn Mar, deputy managing director of criminal defense practice at the advocacy group and legal aid provider Bronx Defenders, says the requirements of the program resemble probation. After all, if a defendant on supervised release falls out of touch with the program, either missing an in-person visit or phone call, BJI must notify the court after 48 hours. The judge then decides how to proceed, whether by waiting until the defendant's next court appearance to reassess their bail status—or else issuing an immediate warrant for their arrest.

"Supervised release is a new option for judges to release more people pretrial," Mar says. "At the same time, it adds a whole other level of scrutiny and intrusion into the lives of people who haven't been convicted of anything and are presumed innocent. The vast majority of people already come back voluntarily and shouldn't be subject to pretrial detention or restrictions at all."

Brooklyn and the Bronx both have charitable bail funds, which use donations to bail out misdemeanor defendants facing amounts up to $2,000. About 97 percent of the people bailed out by the Bronx Freedom Fund end up coming to all their court dates with only text message and phone call reminders. But according to Alex Crohn, general counsel at the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice, the supervised release program is targeted at suspects who need more than just a nudge to return to court.

"In the grand scheme of things, supervised release is a relatively light touch," he tells VICE. "It's not mandatory drug treatment; it's check-ins. For individuals who can be safely supervised in the community, this program is doing a bit more to ensure that people show up for court."

Kaitlin Klipsch, a social worker with Brooklyn Justice Initiatives, at a window used to interview defendants in Brooklyn Criminal Court

Seventy-two percent of participants in the November 2013 to September 2014 BJI pilot program for misdemeanor cases remained in compliance throughout their court case, according to data analyzed by CCI. Supervised release participants were less likely to receive a misdemeanor criminal conviction compared to those detained pretrial (21 percent vs. 38 percent), and significantly less likely to receive a jail sentence as a result of a conviction (11 percent vs. 34 percent). Participants were generally able to maintain what BJI calls "pro-social" ties to family, employment and housing while they fought their cases—which may have contributed to better outcomes.

"It's make or break for a lot of people," argues BJI Deputy Project Director Jonathan Monsalve.

Kay hopes supervised release will help defendants perceive the judicial process as a fair one and create a space inside the courthouse where they and their families can go for help.

"Blue doors," she says. "Do you know what we had to do to get blue doors?"

Onerous supervision remains a stumbling block as the program goes into wider practice, but most experts are cautiously optimistic at a tangible sign of change in New York's criminal justice system.

"We run the risk of making everything worse, but I'm not sure it could get much worse than the money bail system we have in place right now," explains Schancke, the legal scholar.

At just after 6:50 PM, the judge sees Kay rush in the courtroom door, shaking her head and making a "cut" motion with her hand. It's a signal that the young man does not qualify for supervised release because the program excludes all violent felonies, no matter how low-level.

The judge looks at the young man's criminal history and decides to let him go anyway—so long as he promises to meet with his attorney on Monday.

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Melissa Ann Shepard, known as the "Internet Black Widow," arrives at court in on Tuesday, March 15. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

An elderly woman who rose to infamy over the last two decades as the "Internet Black Widow" —a name given to her for her attempts to rob from, poison and murder some of her past partners via identities she assumed online—is scheduled to be released from a Nova Scotia prison Friday. But not before the Crown will try and impose a rare set of conditions on her.

All photos by Tom Caron-Delion

Skateboarding is a universal language. A simple piece of wood with four wheels attached can cut across all kinds of social and cultural barriers.

I grew up near Plumstead and Woolwich in southeast London, which is home to one of the largest Nepalese communities in Britain. One of my closest friends, the illustrator Gaurab Thakali, is from this community. He was born in Nepal and lived there for the first ten years of his life. I met him skateboarding, and we've been skating and working together for years.

In 2015, we decided to travel to Nepal together to make some work about skateboarding, but also about everyday life and rebuilding in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake that occurred in the country. He was the insider, and I was the outsider.

There's only one skate park in Nepal, a DIY park in Pokhara. It's a small but thriving scene of determined individuals. Skateboarding for me was a tool of communication, a middle ground that allowed me to immerse myself in this community and get to know it on an intimate level.

The park in Pokhara was built and is entirely funded by a man called Ram. Ram has put his whole being into skateboarding because he wholeheartedly believes it is a positive expression for the kids of Nepal. He has spent years trying to convince the government to fund a skate park, to no avail.

The skateboarders ranged from young kids who had only just stepped on wheels, to kids with absolutely no fear, attempting to drop in without shoes on the day after first seeing a board. Some of them had watched American skaters on the internet and had such an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm. I was reminded of how I felt when I first got into it ten years ago.

The signs of the earthquake were evident everywhere—though not so much in the destruction that I saw, more in the rebuilding that surrounded us. From what I heard, many people's attitudes had shifted after seeing the tragedy that the natural disaster had brought. People had begun to live life more in the moment, spending money in a more carefree way. The skateboarders of Pokhara already lived in this way—they're young and have a tunnel vision for skateboarding, but within there community there was a positive outlook and a fearlessness that I'm sure existed before the earthquake. Just like kids in England, their main concern was getting through their schooldays so that they could go skate, or getting some work so that they could live and still afford to skateboard. It's their life.

See more of Tom's work at his website and check out Tom and Gaurab's full project about Nepal's skateboarders.

Photo via Turnul Sfatului

This article was originally published by VICE Romania

A city councillor from the small Romanian town of Medias was recently so annoyed by the barking of his neighbor's dogs that he proposed to have the vocal cords of every dog in his town cut—if the dog barks "too loudly" between certain hours of the night, that is. As expected, Ioan Ciulea's proposal was quickly blocked by his colleagues, but he is now striking back with a new, admittedly more reasonable, plan: He wants local dog owners to keep their dogs indoors at night, instead of in their yards.

I called councillor Ciulea to find out what other treats he has in store for our four-legged friends.

VICE: Did you know it was illegal to cut off a dog's vocal cords when you submitted the first draft of your proposal?
Ioan Ciulea: I was not 100 percent sure. I knew that there was this thing called "animal rights," but I didn't know you can't do that to an animal.

Are these dogs I can hear barking in the background?
Yes. I am surrounded by my dogs. I am a dog lover. But I know how to treat my dogs. If I tell them to shut up, they shut up. But my neighbor's dogs don't shut up. If they see you on the street, they don't stop barking.

How many dogs do you have?
I am not at home now. I have this field, where I keep four dogs—that's where I am at the moment. At home, I have one dog and my brother-in-law has another. We share the same yard, but he keeps it inside at night, and it doesn't bother anyone. And if he tells his dog to shut up, the dog shuts up.

My Labrador, Cora, barks like any normal dog. But there are dogs that bark at an unnatural volume. Do you realize how loud two dogs barking in the same yard can be? Do you know what a dog banging its head on an iron fence sounds like? It sounds like a cannon ball.

How would you determine what barking at "an unnatural volume" means?
You work in the media, right? We live in an era of gadgets and other types of advanced technology, so you can come at night and record the sounds made by a dog. If the barks exceed the decibel limit, then we can decide.

What if at a certain point Cora becomes too loud? How would you feel if the law forced you to remove her vocal cords?
We are not talking about cutting off her vocal chords but about making a small incision. If my dog bothers the neighbors, I will be the first to experiment with this in Romania.

Cora is my dog. I've been taking care of her since she was a puppy. I would be the first to cut my dog's vocal cords, if it were necessary. But the problem is that it is against the law to do that, because the government had to go and invent "animal rights." So now it would be illegal for me to do that.

Had something happened on the day you proposed that dogs should have their vocal cords cut off? Something that bothered you more than usual?
I have had to live with my neighbor's dog for a year. I asked him to silence his dog in a nice way, I told him the hard way. I even called the police, but nothing.

Veterinarians say this type of surgery is painful, and it can change the behavior of the dog and make it more aggressive.
I don't think a dog could become more aggressive because of that. We have to discuss this with experts, not with the amateurs who wrote the animal rights law and the MPs who passed it and forced it on us.

About your more recent proposal, which maintains that dogs are kept indoors at night. Does that refer to a specific time frame?
Yes. I think dogs should be locked indoors between 10 PM and 7 AM on weekdays and from 10 PM to 9 AM on weekends. Several townspeople, who have traveled abroad, told me that this is possible in Europe.

What if that proposal is also rejected?
The third proposal is for the owner to buy an electric shock collar for the dog to wear. So when the dog starts barking, you shock it, and it stops. I don't know how much an electric collar costs. I don't know if someone has invented it either. But we will not give up until we solve the problem.

And what if that motion also gets rejected?
You are too curious, and I already said too much. Information costs money. I don't give information for free.

On a recent trip back to her home country, Mayan Toledano, an Israeli-born and New York–based artist, photographed an intimate series of female Israeli soldiers. She was looking to redeem a small piece of her teenage girlhood during which she served as a soldier herself and was stripped of all cultural "feminine" symbols. Gender, race, and personal differences are to be set aside during the years of mandatory service in the Israeli military—the national identity is privileged over any form of individuality. Toledano remembers fearing that her uniform might somehow erase her evolving womanhood.

In Toledano's series, however, the young subjects fail, beautifully, to conform. Underneath the layers, they are softly glowing in their singularity, taking on creative positions as soldier journalists, teachers, and filmmakers, and carefully choosing the fit of their uniforms, shoes, white T-­shirts, and small pieces of jewelry. As paradoxical as it may sound, Toledano's photos reveal that what seems like these girls' indifference is actually an expression of their autonomy. In a way, it's their girly, teenage boredom that reflects a passive, sleepy protest against violence.

In Toledano's photographs, they are very delicately illuminated in pink hues, as if viewed through a prism of a nearby sunrise or sunset.
—Elizabeth Renstrom, VICE Photo Editor

Lightning from 'Final Fantasy XIII' is one of the faces of Louis Vuitton's "Series 4" campaign

Okay, so I am by no stretch of the imagination someone who is knowledgeable about fashion. My wardrobe consists of a lot of neutrals, and then whatever else my best friend has forced me to buy to try and help me break out of my habit of only wearing black, white, and variations of beige and grey. I'm not not fashionable; it just takes me a while to get what looks good and what I feel good in. For game jams, sometimes I rock a maxi skirt with a high slit up the side, or jean shorts and an oversized Godzilla tee. It all depends on my mood.

Clothing as a woman in games can be a contentious thing (either professionally or personally), especially when planning on attending industry events like the Game Developers Conference (GDC, going on right now in San Francisco), IndieCade, and PAX. Maddy Myers wrote a great article for Paste in 2014, discussing the thought process behind why she dresses the way she does at game industry events, and a lot of it resonated with me. When women have to navigate male-dominated industries, the way we dress is going to become a topic of conversation.

When I was at PAX East in 2015, promoting a game I was doing marketing support for, I noticed a change in the way people responded to me based on how I dressed. The first day I wore a graphic tee and ripped jeans, and there was nothing to really report. The second day, though, I wore a high-waisted skirt and a dark-blue tank top, and immediately people started treating me differently. I got more unsolicited comments on how I dressed. Looks lingered a little bit longer, and in places they didn't the day before. People were nicer to me. People were meaner to me. It was weird.

I didn't think about any of this before going out that day at PAX. I was thinking about the game and who I wanted to play it; how sore my feet were going to be, because those booths are not kind to feet; and which of my international friends I'd be able to meet up with. But now, planning my trip to this April's IndieCade in New York as an independent game-maker and freelance critic, it's something I'm thinking about again. A lot.

What the hell will I wear?

It's weird, and it's something I'm trying to just bury, not let it bother me, and to move on from. But with the #GameDevFashion hashtag going around Twitter back in February, and now again during GDC, maybe it'll be less weird. It's cool to see people sharing their own personal style and to challenge the idea that game developers aren't fashionable people. I mean, I rock a plaid shirt as much as anybody else, but it's not the only style in my closet.

Article continues after the video below

Related: Watch VICE's film on competitive gaming, eSports

This isn't the first time fashion in video games has had a spotlight shined on it. Gita Jackson wrote a fantastic column for Paste about fashion icons in video games, as well, called "Wardrobe Theory." Check out her talking about the fashion in Dishonored and Yuna's style in Final Fantasy X. But it is cool to see how Lightning's new role as brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton is further highlighting the ways video game characters operate as fashion icons. And with game developer Barbie now sure to inspire little kids growing up, the way women dress in the video game industry (and in games themselves) is worth acknowledging and celebrating.

So, in the spirit of trying to be unapologetic in how I dress as a woman game-maker and critic (and in trying to plan my wardrobe for IndieCade), here are my top video game characters who have inspired my current brand of casual, kinda cute style. Special note: since Lightning is now the fashion ambassador for video games, I'm leaving her off this list. It's just not fair to everyone else.

Jill Valentine ('Resident Evil 3: Nemesis')

Her Look: Blue tube top, black tight skirt, knee-high leather boots.
What I'm a Sucker For: Her tight skirt and high boots.

This is my go-to winter outfit, albeit usually paired with a chunky knit sweater. (Sorry, Jill, I just can't rock a tube top anymore.) Throw on a pair of sheer tights underneath, and you're good to go. I often call this my "zombie apocalypse" outfit, since it's the one that I feel pretty confident I'd be okay with wearing for many days on end if the world suddenly exploded and I didn't have access to a revolving door of clothes and styles to wear. Dressing like Jill Valentine at video game events gives me the added backbone of knowing that if she could take down Nemesis wearing that skirt and those boots, there's no reason why I can't navigate con floors and hoards of strangers wearing a similar outfit.

Tifa Lockhart ('Final Fantasy VII')

Her Look: White crop top, brown shorts, suspenders, gloves, and combat boots.
What I'm a Sucker For: A white T-shirt, shorts, and combat boots.

This is great for the summer. I usually skip the crop top for personal comfort, but this is really a perfect outfit for hanging out. In fact, the avatar that was created for me in the first game I worked on shows me rocking a Tifa-like outfit: a white shirt and combat boots. I keep my brown hair long because of Tifa, too, despite my urge every once in a while to return to my Jill Valentine hair days. This was my typical outfit as a kid. Sure, it looked plain to everyone else (like me), but secretly I knew I was rocking the look of one of the coolest, sweetest, and strongest gals in video games.

Rinoa Heartilly ('Final Fantasy VIII')

Her Look: White halter-style dress, sheer overlay.
What I'm a Sucker For: That dress.

I was no stranger to falling in love with Final Fantasy ladies as a child/pre-teen, and Rinoa was no exception. I have a T-shirt with angel wings cut out on the back in the hopes of channeling her heart and compassion. But that's not my real take-away from Rinoa. What really got to me was her dress, the one she wears at the SeeD ball (and the one that consequently proves to Squall that he doesn't stand a chance against her, the original manic pixie dream girl in video games). This dress epitomized the look I wanted to communicate when I wanted to dress up: elegant, fun, and simple.

Aya Brea ('Parasite Eve')

Her Look: Ripped jeans, dark blue tank top, knee-high leather boots.
What I'm a Sucker For: Everything. Ripped jeans are my jam. But particularly that and her necklace that hangs just under her throat.

I never played 1998's Parasite Eve growing up (never had a PlayStation of my own until the PS3 came out), but that didn't mean I didn't spend much of my time poring over video game magazines, scrutinizing Aya's style and look. She was gorgeous, strong, and she had a game all to herself. I mythologized Aya as a youngster, and part of me thinks that my unrelenting love of women in creepy games and horror was born from this adoration. Aya's style still remains with me: her side-slit dress informs my choice of side-slit skirts, her simple black dress lets me feel strong and capable in my own black dresses, and her ripped jeans and tank top enables me to feel like a force to be reckoned with on the days when I don't have the strength to think about how my outfits and appearance are going to be taken by everyone else around me.

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Chris Grayling (right), who as justice secretary privatized probation. Photo by BIBA Broker. Thumbnail image via Oh-Berlin.com

As head of the Department of Corrections in Washington State, Bernie Warner oversaw the accidental early release of 3,200 prisoners. Having left that job, he became the Vice President of Corrections at US firm Management and Training Corporation (MTC), a US private prison operator that has been hit by numerous riots and scandals. And now, thanks to the government's privatization of probation, Bernie and MTC are bringing their stellar record to the UK.

Last year the Conservative government handed probation services—which manage ex-prisoners on release from prison, trying to guide them away from crime—to private companies. MTC are running two of the biggest new "Community Rehabilitation Companies" in London and the Thames Valley. All but the most violent ex-prisoners in London are being managed by MTC and their partners, operating under the name MTCNovo. The MTCNovo website doesn't say who is in charge, but company records obtained by VICE show that Bernie Warner is one of the American directors of UK based MTCNovo, and has been since last December.

Soon after Bernie left his job in charge of prisons in Washington State, a scandal erupted. Since 2002, his Department of Corrections had released 3,200 prisoners early, thanks to a computer error. State officials admitted that in 2015 alone there were two killings by ex-prisoners who should have been in prison but had been let go before their time due to the faulty computer program.

Warner told the Seattle Times he didn't know and "was shocked to learn that the Department was releasing inmates inaccurately for the past 13 years and when it was found out in my administration, it was not addressed."

Officials also admitted that Warner's department knew about the early release problem in 2012, but attempts to fix the computer system were delayed 16 times. They also said that Warner's Assistant Secretary, who reported directly to him, definitely knew about the faulty computer program.

MTC in the US told VICE: "Bernie Warner had no knowledge of any early release of offenders during his tenure, and is fully cooperating with the state's investigation." As he was in charge of the department, ignorance of such a major failing raises questions over his leadership. But MTC said Warner had taken Washington State Department of Corrections to "new heights" and he "will be a tremendous asset to MTC and its mission of rehabilitating offenders within our care."

Warner was appointed to run MTC's prisons division after a series of scandals hit the firm. These scandals were unfolding as then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling was giving control of probation in London and the Thames Valley to the private sector.

Grayling announced MTC were one of his choices to run probation in his controversial privatization program in late 2014. The firm formally took over London probation in February 2015. Grayling was replaced as Justice Secretary by Michael Gove in May 2015. Gove has unpicked some of Grayling's policies, but is sticking with his probation privatization.

These seven-year probation contracts are massive. The government will pay MTCnovo £982 million in the Thames Valley for the work.

...disorder, periodic mayhem, and staff ineptitude which leads to perpetual danger to the inmates and staff.

Unfortunately, the firm's recent prison record does not inspire confidence. In July 2015 there was a riot at the MTC-run Arizona State Prison-Kingman, which meant 1,200 prisoners had to be shipped out. In September 2015 Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced he was severing all links with MTC. The State Governor sacked MTC from Arizona's prisons following an investigation into the cause of the riot. According to the official report, the investigation found, "A culture of disorganization, disengagement, and disregard for state policies by MTC" along with "Failure by MTC to conduct critical staff training, and withholding these failures from Department of Corrections monitors."

Also in July 2015, a Federal Judge ordered improvements for inmates at the MTC-run Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Mississippi. This followed a lawsuit launched by campaign group the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in defense of the inmates' constitutional rights. The case was deeply damning of MTC's prison. Judge Carlton Reeves said, "The evidence before the Court paints a picture of a facility struggling with disorder, periodic mayhem, and staff ineptitude which leads to perpetual danger to the inmates and staff." SPLC's case said gangs "ran amok" in the youth jail while staff "colluded" with them. During the court case MTC's prison's governor admitted that two staff were being fired for sexual misbehavior, but he was waiting for DNA evidence to see if a third guard sexually assaulted multiple inmates.

In February 2015 there was a riot at the MTC-run Willacy County Correctional Center in Texas. Around two thirds of the 2,800 inmates refused work details, and set fire to three of the ten tents in which they were housed. The riot was suppressed after guards used teargas and 300 inmates were removed. The American Civil Liberties Union said the riot was "most unsurprising" because of poor conditions: Inmates slept in 200 closely placed beds per tent. ACLU's visitor found inmates "getting thrown into isolation cells for complaining about bad food and poor medical care, being denied both urgent and routine medical care, and being cut off from contact with their families." In March the National Bureau of Prison's canceled MTC's contract at the prison.

Related: Watch 'Young Reoffenders'

Asked about these problems, MTC's US spokesperson told VICE, "Operating prisons is inherently challenging and not without risks. Incidents happened at both public facilities and those operated in partnership with companies like MTC." The firm said they are, "proud of the impact we have had in the lives of offenders over the last three decades—helping them to change their behavior in order to be successful in society after release," adding "This mission continues in the United Kingdom."

MTCNovo's UK spokesperson said, "The Ministry of Justice of course carries out a detailed assessment" of firms they are appointed and the government "is well aware of MTC's record of 30 years in the US" which they described as a "strong reputation for providing quality service."

The government's privatization of probation involves a number of other firms with patchy records on public contracts, and other "Community Rehabilitation Companies" (CRC's) are in difficulty: In South Yorkshire the probation service run by Sodexo failed a Ministry of Justice audit. The Kent, Surrey, and Sussex CRC also had problems with a Ministry audit, while the Welsh CRC has been criticized for job cuts.

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Just a couple of best bros. Photo via The Canadian Press.

I was recently voted, by a jury of my Twitter peers, as the top-notch author of some premium Justin Trudeau smut.

It is a distinction that I do not receive lightly. It is an honour bestowed on me by a man who appears to be a Donald Trump partisan, a fervent Islamophobe, and who wholesale sold off his scraps of integrity and utility as rabble-rousing contrarian for the sake of attracting the views and clicks of an xenophobic mass of online denizens. A real mensch.

Cyberdog in Camden Market

Eloise Adora and friends

Sarah Mitchell, 38, was an original cybergoth back in the mid to late 90s. "Cybergoth, for me, started via lots of different influences at the same time, as these things often do. I loved a comic called Tank Girl with a girl who wore socks on her arms and a Japanese fashion magazine called Fruits which was just pages of alternative Tokyo fashion. As a result of that, I was wearing big boots and little skirts or shorts." At the time she was living on the Isle of Wight, so Sarah absorbed the subculture through disparate sources. "Once I was old enough I'd go to this nightclub called Boilerroom, basically the only alternative night. I got into industrial and incorporated a heavier look with the bright colors I already wore. There were only a few people who dressed like me. But when I went to festivals on the mainland, there were plenty of people dressed like me. It was then I realized cybergoth was happening all across the country."

Without the internet, you had to DIY. "There were no YouTube cybergoths doing tutorials or online shops or anything, so you just got a mate who thought they knew how to do dreads with beeswax and a bit of backcombing. There was one hippy shop near me that sold hair dye and a few bits so I'd go there and once a year I'd go to Brighton with all my money saved up and go to Cyberdog and all the alt shops there," Sarah recalls.

Sarah Mitchell and her husband

The scene was strongest in London, and in Manchester and Liverpool, where the UK metal scene has always thrived. Jilly's in Manchester was a particular favorite. "For a lot of people, like me, we'd just be heavy on booze—WKD, crap like that. Everyone's tables would be chock-a-block with glasses. There was definitely a drug scene, though, which caused a divide," explains Sarah. "The cybergoths who were hardcore into industrial rave were thrashing around holding glowsticks, and a portion of cybergoths would do MDMA or coke. It was definitely an environment where you could chase that high if you wanted." Despite looking distinctly alien, their alignment with mainstream rave culture was clear.

Cybergoth began its decline in the late noughties. Jilly's shut down, as did much of Manchester's thriving clubbing scene, and organized raves became an anomaly. In the past ten years, half of the UK's nightclubs have closed due to a mix of increased policing, struggle for licenses, and planning tensions.

Mike Schorler, spokesperson for Wave Gotik Treffen, the biggest goth festival in Europe, told VICE: "There used to be many more cybergoths, judging from obvious outfits, about four or five years ago. In recent years their number keeps decreasing." Their online presence is declining, too: the cybergoth subreddit has barely any updates and 'cybergoth confessions' Tumblr stopped posting two years ago. It's rare to see a flash of neon cyberlox or space goggles on the streets anymore—even in Camden. Could it be that an end to rave signaled an end to the subculture?

It's more likely that it's just operating in a different space. People in cybergoth Facebook groups were reluctant to talk to me for this piece, and many of those who did wanted to do so anonymously. It's little surprise, given the way that cybergoth has been ruthlessly maligned. Eloise Adora, a 24-year-old alternative model and beauty therapist from London, says that the bad press has been collectively felt. "There have been so many times where we've been asked questions and then later on been portrayed negatively and in a pisstaking way. It happened a lot in Slimelight, where journalists pretended they were going to write positive things and instead did the opposite. The clubs—that one in particular—won't allow media to question people and will throw them out. A lot of us stay at home more than clubbing now anyway, partly because some things said were hurtful and untrue." Only last year, a cybergoth student was allegedly turned away from a local Wetherspoons pub, mocked by drinkers for being "transgender" and a "freak show" as she left.

Eloise Adora, photo Yuliya Colley Photography

The original cybergoths, meanwhile, have grown up. Sarah is now a mom to a small child and can't go clubbing anymore—"even if I could afford the time or money"—and can't keep up with expensive alternative brands. Cyberdog, forever in sync with the movement it spawned, now has a kid's range, and its social media accounts are littered with professional mother-and-child photoshoots. It started the hashtag #cybermums in the run up to Mother's Day, encouraging parents to share cute photos of themselves with kids.

But there are still younger cybergoths coming up to take the baton. Laura Aurora, 29, moved to London four years ago to seek out a cybergoth scene. "I worked for Cyberdog and met a load of people through that, going to clubs and festivals. I found a community of like-minded people and for the first time I felt like I fitted in somewhere. This gave me the opportunity to really play with my look and made it into what it is today." She wasn't disappointed with what she found in the capital. "There's Slimelight every Saturday and Club Antichrist every other month or so. Industrial music in general is very healthy and there are new bands and genres springing up all the time, so you get a good mix of age ranges. Industrial music doesn't have a limited shelf life like most commercial stuff tends to."

Naturally the look hasn't stayed chained to the one forged in the fires of Cyberdog and the 90s. Eloise has seen a vast turnover in trends around the scene since she was a teenager. "All the people I know have adapted to cyberpunk or cyberpop styles of clothing. I would even consider my style a mix of Japanese alt fashion and cyberpop as well as traditional cybergoth."

This joke will never get stale, I'm sure. Photo via Incredi-Bull

Robert Bender and friends are fed up with everyone's bullshit.

The 67-year-old from Ottawa says people are spewing more bullshit these days than they ever have before, and together with a half-dozen "fun-loving mercenaries," (whatever that means) he founded a company that sends it right back at them. Incredi-Bull, launched in January, offers its customers poetic justice: to call people on their bullshit "and actually do something about it."

Legal experts have advised that it's not necessarily the act of mailing feces that's problematic, since, generally speaking, it isn't dangerous, but it's the sender's intent and the context of their relationship with the recipient that could potentially make the person legally liable. It would however be "unlikely" for someone to face any criminal liability, according to Toronto criminal defence lawyer Brian Weingarten.

Any case would have to prove not only that it was a real threat, but also that it was done with malicious intent or recklessness, Weingarten says.

"It's probably going to be an inconvenience and the person's probably not going to be happy, but I think it would be a very unusual circumstance for it to really amount to a criminal charge," he says.

"Courts don't like to deal with things that are jokes or pranks in a criminal context."

Incredi-Bull's limited Valentine's Day package (photo via Incredi-Bull)

"This is clearly a joke product, with humour as intent. It has been sterilized, it has been treated in ways that make it innocuous," says Bender. "From a social standpoint, we don't want to be party to bullying or things that could come out of what I would call inappropriate motivation for protest."

He says business has been solid so far. Incredi-Bull keeps its sales numbers private, but he says they're currently processing their third 50-kilogram lot of raw material (each "greeting card" uses between 20 and 50 grams). The company's already planning to scale up, including eventually introducing a new "bullshit detector" product. Not hard, since Bender says there's "no shortage" of bullshit in Canada.

"It's an annoying feature of life and I think in some ways corrosive. There are a lot of people who are fed up with the constant amount of abuse they get from being on the receiving end of bullshit."

Follow Adam Feibel on Twitter.

Lame-ass Canadian teenagers apparently aren't doing much of this anymore. Photo via Flickr user Nadja Tatar

Canadian high school students are over weed.

At the Democratic primary debate in Florida last week, Washington Post moderator Karen Tumulty asked presidential candidate Bernie Sanders a version of a question people have been asking him since he began his unlikely campaign: If elected, how would he fulfill his ambitious progressive agenda, in the face of an obstructionist Republican Congress and an American public that historically hasn't been eager to embrace big government programs, or the taxes that tend to come with them.

With a signature wave of his arms, Sanders's repeated his stock response. "I'm the only candidate who says no president, not Bernie Sanders, can do it all," he said. "You know what we need, Karen? We need a political revolution in this country."

This answer drives a lot of people nuts. To Sanders's detractors—specifically those who support his primary opponent Hillary Clinton—the Vermont Senator is a wild-haired ideologue, an angry Brooklyn deli man with a Workers' Vanguard subscription who thinks the United States should try to be a little more like Denmark. While Clinton is a pragmatic problem-solver, they argue, Sanders could never get elected in a general election race.

But to another, more liberal wing of the party, Sanders represents the future. It's no secret that the Democrats' center of gravity has moved left since the Great Recession, propelled by grassroots movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, and a new crop of unapologetically liberal politicians like Elizabeth Warren, Bill De Blasio and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. For the progressive activists who have fueled this shift, Sanders's campaign, with its promise of political revolution, is a call to arms, a chance to push what was once a fringe left-wing policy platform—free college, single-payer healthcare, breaking up big banks, et al.—into the political mainstream.

"One year ago, it was almost unimaginable that both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders would be talking about jailing Wall Street bankers who break the law, breaking up big banks, extending Social Security benefits," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. "It's such a sea change from where the Democratic Party was a year ago."

Bernie Sanders fans. Photo by Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Of course, Sanders's political revolution, at least as he envisions it, hasn't quite materialized. Despite the candidate's success at filling arenas and bringing in small donations, voter turnout in the Democratic primaries so far hasn't been particularly overwhelming, raising questions about whether his brand of lefty populism is actually bringing disenfranchised, disillusioned voters into the political system. While Sanders campaign has outperformed expectations, his chances of winning the nomination are increasingly slim, especially after Clinton's sweeping primary victories Tuesday night.

"It's one thing to earn the support of young people if you're a self-proclaimed revolutionary," said University of New Hampshire political scientist Dante Scala. "The hard part is to win over middle aged voters who are not in the habit of voting."

Regardless of how Sanders fares going forward, though, Democratic strategists note that his campaign has already had an outsized impact Democratic Party—one that could endure long after Clinton's likely nomination. Green, whose group has not endorsed a presidential candidate, said candidates all over the country are likely to see the Sanders campaign as evidence that running on big-picture, populist issues could be a winning strategy. Already, PCCC-has endorsed congressional candidates who have cast themselves in the Bernie mold, including Zephyr Teachout in New York, Lucy Flores in Nevada, and Pramila Jayapal in Washington.

Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic strategist who managed Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, noted that losing presidential candidates sometimes have a longer-term impact on the political landscape than the eventual winner. New generations of candidates and political operatives tend to get their start in high-energy, ideologically strident campaigns, he said, like that of Dean or Barry Goldwater, the Republican Party's failed 1964 nominee.

"Goldwater sort of created the conservative foundation of the party, moving forward for the last four decades," Trippi said. The Sanders campaign, he added, could similarly have ripple effects on the Democratic Party for decades. "He's getting young people fired up, empowered," he said. "One of them is going to become president."

An Iowa voter feels the Bern. Photo by Phil Roeder via Flickr

If Sanders supporters and donors remain engaged, progressive leaders say, they could become a powerful force in Democratic politics, with the potential to move the needle in local and state races, and even to make inroads with the national party establishment.

Neil Sroka, spokesman for Democracy for America, a group that grew out of Dean's 2004 campaign and whose members have overwhelmingly endorsed Sanders, said he expects candidates at all levels of government to gain strength from the Sanders campaign. "Whether he gets into office or doesn't," Sroka said, "I think people are going to be inspired to take his message and understand that they too can run a people-powered campaign."

It can be difficult to maintain national momentum in the absence of a national candidate, said Peter Fenn, a Democratic consultant. Attempts to shift energy for the Obama campaign into the spinoff group Organizing for America, for example, never really gained traction with progressive activists. "They didn't utilize those people as much as they could in some of their efforts," Fenn said. "This is so important, to keep people involved and keep them informed."

For Sanders's supporters, enthusiasm for the Vermont Senator's upstart campaign may not flow back into the Democratic Party. Ethan Earle, a Sanders supporter who works as a project manager in the New York office of the left-wing Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, said he hopes other Bernie fans channel their energy into grassroots efforts outside of traditional politics, including support for labor unions, fair housing, and police accountability. A member of the Democratic Socialists of America, Earle said he does phone banking and data entry for the Sanders campaign, and is already working to link campaign to local activist movements.

"I think this leads to a transformation," he explained, "from politics as something that happens on CNN every four years to something happening around you."

Follow Livia Gershon on Twitter.

The Republican Party's long-awaited day of reckoning finally arrived on Tuesday, and to no one's surprise, it was a very good day for Donald Trump. In a major multi-state primary contest imaginatively referred to as "Super Tuesday 3," voters in five states cast ballots for the GOP candidates. The results were supposed to determine how hard Trump will have to fight for the party's nomination on the convention floor, and the answer was what most people suspected: not very hard.

The first big news of the night was arguably the most predictable: After trailing in state and national polls for months, Marco Rubio was trounced in his home state, losing Florida's winner-take-all primary to Trump by nearly 20 points shortly after the polls closed Tuesday. The Cuban-American Senator lost in every county, except his own, Miami-Dade. It was a humiliating loss for a politician that until recently was looked on as the White Knight of the Republican Party, marking the end of a downward spiral that, in hindsight, began back with that unfortunate sip of water in 2013.

Thus out of options, Rubio announced Tuesday night that would suspend his presidential campaign. Though he didn't mention Trump by name, his farewell speech was an impressive jeremiad against the frontrunner's divisive brand of politics, and also the conservative movement and GOP Establishment, which he accused of "being more interested in winning elections than solving problems or standing by principles."

"From a political standpoint, the easiest thing to have done in this campaign is to jump on all those anxieties...to make people angrier, make people more frustrated," Rubio told supporters a gathering of supporters in Miami. "But I chose a different route and I'm proud of that."

"The politics of resentment against other people will not just leave us a fractured party," he added. "They are going to leave us as a nation where people literally hate each other because they have different political opinions."

In a sign of how desperate Republicans have become, Rubio had barely finished speaking before conservatives, online and on cable news—including at least one of the candidate's former advisors—started calling on the Florida Senator's supporters to get behind his primary rival, Ted Cruz. Cruz, you may remember, has spent most of the 2016 cycle trying to undermine Rubio, and even had to fire his campaign spokesman for taking the Marco sabotage too far.

By Tuesday night, though, the Texas Senator had changed his tune, calling his Senate colleague and rival "an inspiration," and telling Rubio's supporters that they would be welcomed to the Cruz campaign "with open arms."

Aside from the rapid-response ass-kissing, Cruz had a mostly unremarkable night Tuesday, coming in second behind Trump in North Carolina and Illinois, and virtually tying with the frontrunner in Missouri. The proportional allocation of delegates in North Carolina and Missouri once again worked to Cruz's advantage, helping to offset slightly his opponents' winner-take-all victories in Florida and Ohio.

It was hardly a big night for the Texan, but he frequently points out, he remains the only candidate left in the race with a viable path to beating Trump. "Only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination," Cruz told supporters at a gathering in Houston Tuesday night. "Nobody else has any mathematical possibility whatsoever."

The problem for Cruz is that Republican leaders hate him almost as much as they hate Trump. With Rubio out of the race, the lone Establishment survivor is Ohio Governor John Kasich. Though generally unremarkable, Kasich scored a big victory in his home state Tuesday night, edging out his opponents to take all of Ohio's 66 delegates. While the win can't do much for his presidential ambitions at this point, it made a deep cut into Trump's overall delegate tally, making it far more difficult for the frontrunner to get to the 1,237 needed to lock up the nomination before the convention.

Trump, meanwhile, seemed unfazed. In surprisingly un-Donald-like remarks Tuesday, he turned his attention not to his primary opponents, but to the party itself, hinting that it's time for Republicans to accept him as their eventual nominee. "We have something happening that makes the Republican Party probably the biggest political story in the world," Trump told supporters gathered in the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. "Everyone around the world is talking about it. Millions of people are coming in to vote."

"We're gonna win, win, win, and we're not stopping," he promised. "We're going to have great victories for our country."

On the Democratic side, Tuesday's votes were less eventful, although the outcome was similarly favorable to the party's frontrunner. After pulling off a surprising upset in the Michigan primary last week, Bernie Sanders once again fell behind his opponent Hillary Clinton Tuesday, finishing second in four of the five states that cast ballots. The results were close in Illinois, and he did manage to pull off a tie in Missouri; but in Ohio, a Rust Belt state where the Sanders' campaign had hoped to replicate its Michigan success, Clinton managed to pull ahead by more than 10 points. She also won easily in Florida and North Carolina

The results solidify Clinton's already strong delegate lead, making her inevitable nomination once again seem like a foregone conclusion. Sanders is likely to stay in the race—he's said he'll ride his campaign out to the convention, and has the funding to do it—but at this point, it's hard to see how he could upset the calculus of the race.

And Clinton herself is once again talking about the election like she has it in the bag. "We know we will add to our delegate lead to roughly 300, with over two million more votes nationwide," she told supporters at a rally in West Palm Beach Tuesday. "We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination and closer to winning this election in November."

Follow John Surico on Twitter.

High school in America, as told by 'Clueless.' Still from 'Clueless'

Thanks to the teen melodrama boom of the early 90s, everyone knows what an American high school looks like: glamorous, fashionable teens smoking Virginia Slims out of bathroom windows, 40-minute passing periods where someone gets stuffed into a locker, crotchety teachers threatening to keep students in detention all summer.

In reality, of course, the American public school system is a bureaucracy devoted to teaching kids how to game standardized tests in order to secure more government funding to then teach kids how to score even higher on those tests. The focus of American education is often not on preparing students for the future, but on forcing them memorize useless information like "the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell." The result, according to some education experts, is that American students basically learn nothing.

European high schools may not have the same pop cultural cachet, but it's generally known that whatever goes on inside them, they're better in many ways than their American counterparts. Schools in countries like Finland, for example, have effectively given up on the repetitive learning style, which might be why those countries regularly outpace American education scores. Even Poland, where one in six children live in relative poverty, continually beats the US in math, science, and reading.

"European countries put greater premium on rigor, focus and coherence in their instructional systems," says Andreas Schleicher, the Paris-based director of education and skills at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Curricula in the United States, by contrast, "run a mile wide but only an inch deep."

Of course, it's hard to compare the United States, a country with over 300 million people, to Europe, a continent with a population of more than 700 million. But there are some clear-cut differences, so keeping in mind that education can vary wildly at the local level, I tried to find out what kids in Europe learn in school that American kids do not.

MANY EUROPEANS ACTUALLY LEARN HOW TO HAVE SEX

Still from 'Mean Girls'

In America, sex education usually boils down to that line from Mean Girls: "If you touch each other, you will get chlamydia. And die." At best, American students are treated to a PowerPoint slideshow of sexually transmitted diseases and maybe a demonstration of how to put a condom on a piece of fruit. At worst, teens are stuck in abstinence-only classrooms, where everyone pretends like they're not going to fuck until they're married. As recently as 2008, according to the Guttmacher Institute, one-third of American kids ages 15 to 19 weren't taught anything about contraceptives in school. Meanwhile, states that have embraced abstinence-only education have the highest teen pregnancy rates.

Conversely, sex education—the kind that acknowledges teens might have sex—is mandatory throughout much of Western and Northern Europe (the Catholic stronghold of Italy is one exception). In many of these countries, sex ed is more practical, and less strictly biological, than it is in America.

The reasons for this might be chalked up to relaxed continental attitudes toward sex. In a 2011 paper on advancing sex education in developing countries, Heather D. Boonstra, the public policy director at the Guttmacher Institute, pointed out that in Western Europe, "sex among adolescents is generally accepted, with little to no societal pressure to remain abstinent. But with that acceptance comes strong cultural norms that emphasize that young people who are having sex should take actions to protect themselves and their partners from pregnancy and STIs."

In Germany, for example, my friend Laura says she learned about sex as early as age eight from a picture book in school. (A similar picture book recently made headlines for being used in a Berlin classroom full of five-year-olds.) German schools teach everything from the biology of reproduction to how to properly use contraception to how to reach orgasm. In the Scandinavian countries—Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland—sex education starts as early as preschool and continues through high school, often including graphic videos that explain how to masturbate, among other topics.

Countries like Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, Slovakia, France, and Luxembourg have sex ed curricula that emphasize things like sexual consent, navigating relationships, and communication, according to a 2013 report on sex education from European Parliament. A friend of mine who has cousins in the Netherlands says they remember learning how to put condoms on dildos in the dark.

The closest thing Europe has to the prudish Americans sex education system is probably found in the UK, which has been criticized for skirting around important sex-related matters in school, and which had the highest teen pregnancy rate in Western Europe as of 2014.

EUROPEANS CAN LOCATE STUFF ON A MAP

Photo via Flickr user Jessica Alexander

It's a running joke that Americans are so ignorant of geography that they'd have trouble pointing out any country but their own on a map. Actually, about one in ten Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 can't find the US on a map, according to a 2002 survey by National Geographic. In that survey of young people in nine developed countries—including Canada, France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and the US— the US came in second-to-last in geographic literacy, beating only Mexico.

A Finnish woman I know tells me that, as children, Finns are expected to not only memorize all the world countries, but also their capitals, any major cities, rivers, mountain ranges, deserts, and other important geographical features. In one stress-inducing childhood experience, she had to name 100 obscure rivers on a map in front of the whole class. Personally, I can't name 100 of anything, other than Pokémon or jelly bean flavors.

"Geography is often thought to help students understand different cultures and social systems in Europe, and to see the world through different lenses, appreciate different perspectives and values," the OECD's Schleicher tells me. "That being said, geography in Europe is often taught in a rather Eurocentric way" that places Europe at the center of the universe and privileges European narratives over others, he adds.

Watch: Another way the United States pales in comparison to Europe: maternity leave.

EUROPEANS LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH, AND OFTEN ANOTHER FOREIGN LANGUAGE

It's easy to take for granted that English is the international language of commerce and politics when it's your mother tongue. In the US, there is no national requirement for students to learn a second language. Although many individual schools make kids take a few foreign language classes in high school, that rarely amounts to more than ¿Cómo estás? and a few foreign swear words.

Not only do almost all European children have to learn English as a second language, but 20 European countries also require students to learn a second foreign language. Students in Austria, Cyrpus, Malta, Croatia, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, and Portugal all start learning their first foreign language by age six; in Belgium kids start learning at age three, according to 2015 data from the Pew Research Center.

In America, by the end of high school the average graduate had taken less than two years of a foreign language—about enough to order from a restaurant, if that—according to research from John H. Bishop, a former Cornell University professor who's authored multiple papers comparing American and European education. By contrast, a quarter of all Europeans can hold a conversation in two or more foreign languages, and half of all Europeans can speak at least one language other than their native tongue.

ONLY AMERICANS ARE OBSESSED WITH SCHOOL SPORTS

Still from 'Friday Night Lights'

One of the largest differences between European and American schools has nothing to do with what goes on inside classrooms. It's the sports teams that dominate massive amounts of money and attention high schools across the US. Europeans take part in PE but their schools don't have the single-minded focus on athletic achievement that is common in America.

Schleicher tells me that when he first visited the US from Germany as a teenager, he was "surprised that the first thing entering a school were all the sports trophies. Sometimes I asked myself how the children who were good at math would feel their interests were valued."

Bishop explains that this stark difference stems from the fact that in Europe, sports are more clearly delineated as a career early on. Kids who show athletic promise often end up in secondary schools where they're trained to enter professional sports or to compete in the Olympics, placing them somewhat outside the ordinary teenage experience. As a blockbuster 2013 article in The Atlantic on the subject pointed out, in places like Finland and Germany, "many kids play club sports in their local towns—outside of school. Most schools do not staff, manage, transport, insure, or glorify sports teams, because, well, why would they?"

Even European PE classes are less focused on competition. Kids in Spain learn how to dance; in Nordic countries, they learn to make maps and orient themselves in nature as part of school. Lithuania and Hungary include correct posture and breathing exercises in their PE curricula, according to a 2012 European Commission report.

There is, however, one area where Americans beat the Europeans: It's anecdotal, but kids in American schools seem to have more fun. Rifle through any number of blogs from foreign exchange students studying in the US (like this one or this one or this one) and they all highlight the American high school experience: football games, cheerleaders, eating chicken nuggets every day for lunch, playing pranks, homecoming, prom. Sure, they might be bored in the classroom, but everyone knows class is the least important part of the American high school experience.

Follow Jules Suzdaltsev on Twitter.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a sudden withdrawal of the bulk of his military forces from Syria. Russia has been backing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad against the rebels; a US diplomat told Al Jazeera that the move is meant to send a message to Assad that he is on a short leash. The New York Times described the secrecy surrounding the decision, which caught the vast majority of the world by surprise, as "vintage Putin."

As with everything involving Syria, up to and including the recent tentative "ceasefire" agreement between foreign powers, this news takes some unpacking. (To begin with, Russia is maintaining a presence in the country; the "withdrawal" is far from total.) To learn more about the geopolitical chess game going on here, we got in touch with Elena McLean, an assistant professor at the University at Buffalo's Department of Political Science. McLean specializes in the study of the international political economy and international institutions, with a focus on foreign aid, economic sanctions, and environmental cooperation. "This move makes perfect political sense in every way," she tells us.

VICE: What effect will this withdrawal have on the war in Syria?
Elena McLean: This will probably have a marginal effect on the war. On the one hand, Russia's withdrawal will likely increase the probability of reaching a more permanent solution to replace the cessation of hostilities agreement that is currently in effect. Without Russia's military presence, Syria's president may be more willing to accept some agreement with rebel forces. On the other hand, Russia is not withdrawing completely; hence, President Assad may view this as a promise that Russian support will be available again if negotiations break down and government forces find themselves in dire straits. Iran and Hezbollah continue providing their support for the Syrian government, and Russia did not announce any intentions to stop providing military equipment and other resources to the government troops.

One last factor to consider is the willingness of the rebels to accept a peace settlement with the Syrian government. Russia's withdrawal may make them less willing to accept it because they may perceive that their opponents' capabilities have been diminished, and hence they are now more likely to prevail. As a result, bargaining between the government and rebels is more likely to break down and hostilities are more likely to resume. This suggests that Putin's decision is unlikely to change the course of this conflict.

Does this move make Assad vulnerable again, or does it speak to his regaining stability?
Assad's position is certainly stronger now than before Russia initiated its military strikes. The government forces are not in retreat any more, and the president's hold on power is more secure than last year. The US and its European allies appear to be more willing to entertain the idea that Assad can remain president at least in the short run, until elections can be held and a power transition can take place peacefully.

Watch: The Battle for Aleppo

Putin claims this withdrawal is a result of Russia's having achieved all its goals in Syria. What were those goals?
The official goal was to fight terrorism. More specifically, Putin stated that Russia's objective was to help the government of Syria in its fight against "terrorists" who operate on its territory and receive support from outside. He pointed out that the Syrian government asked for Russia's help, and Russia had to cooperate because of the alliance between the two countries. Also, the military strikes were aimed at stopping the spread of terrorism throughout the region and preventing it from reaching Russia's own territory.

These objectives have been largely met. Note that Putin defined "terrorism" as everybody who was fighting against Assad, which includes ISIS, but also all moderate opposition forces. Putin blamed the US and its allies for supporting these moderate groups and labeling them "opposition" instead of "terrorists." While none of these groups have been decisively defeated, the objective wasn't necessarily to win. Instead, Putin spoke of helping the Syrian government in its fight. By this measure, Russia has achieved its objective. In addition, Russia demonstrated that it respected its alliance agreement, thereby signaling its credibility as an alliance partner. It was also successful in increasing Assad's political stability and presenting him as a legitimate participant in peace negotiations.

There may have been some unofficial goals, of course. Increasing Russia's military presence in the region and beefing up its military installations could have supported Putin's mission to regain the status of a global power player. The US had to negotiate with Russia in order to secure the temporary agreement between the government and rebels, which can now be touted by the Russian president as evidence of his international influence. In addition, Russian military personnel received training that they otherwise would be unable to receive, and tested missiles and equipment in a combat zone. This can be very valuable in other conflicts. Finally, a quick and successful military operation may have served to distract domestic audiences from the significant economic and political problems that Russia faces right now domestically.

About that: The collapse of the price of oil has hurt Russia terribly, and their economy is really fragile as a result. Is there a chance Putin has declared "mission accomplished" in Syria because he simply can't afford to help Assad any longer?
The economic situation is certainly a concern for Putin, but I would not say that Russia has to pull out because it ran out of money. Russia's military budget has been largely shielded from the economic downturn up until now. However, government representatives recently announced that even the military contracts would now be cut by 10 percent. Therefore, the recession may have an effect on Russia's ability to continue airstrikes in the future. Right now the effect of the weakening economy is probably fairly small: Russia's participation probably wasn't too costly because it was using the planes, missiles, etc. that it already had in stock, as long as the mission could be accomplished within a limited timeframe. Hence, it makes sense to wrap up the strikes now before costs begin to add up.

"Putin is very much mindful of the risk of being bogged down in Afghanistan number two."

Do you think this decision by Putin says anything about the alliance between Syria and Russia? Is it weakening in any way?
There was some evidence that there is indeed a rift between Assad and Putin. Putin does not want to be trapped by an overly belligerent ally who was emboldened by his newly strengthened position—Putin is very much mindful of the risk of being bogged down in Afghanistan number two. Assad suggested that his objective was to regain full control over the entire country, which is clearly not a feasible military objective at the moment. Putin certainly did not share this vision, and Russia made it clear that it was not going to support Assad in this. Therefore, Assad was most likely presented with a fait accompli and did not have any input in this decision.

Overall, is this a savvy move on Putin's part?
This move makes perfect political sense in every way. Putin can credibly take credit for bringing about a temporary agreement in Syria and paving way for peace negotiations. This will enhance his reputation internationally and domestically. It would have been extremely risky to remain in Syria any longer because the probability of a permanent peace agreement between the government and rebels is very low, which means that hostilities can resume at any point. It would be much harder to pull out then without losing face. Continued air strikes can do little to eliminate Islamic terrorists, but they do result in civilian deaths, and the latter would certainly hurt Putin's reputation of peacemaker.

Domestically, there was never much understanding of Russia's involvement in Syria's war, so the longer this involvement dragged on, the more this intervention would resemble the USSR's intervention in Afghanistan. This is still a painful memory, and Putin was very keen to avoid any associations with that failed effort. Hence, Russia's involvement in Syria had to be short—and the current cessation of hostilities agreement provides a logical point for declaring the mission a success and pulling out. On the flip side, research shows that leaders who fight a losing war are more likely to be replaced in office, especially if the country experiences large losses as a result of that conflict. By pulling out of Syria, Putin avoids these political costs.

Follow Brian McManus on Twitter

These two haven't just moved in together and aren't featured in this article. They're two people we interviewed ages ago just after they'd had sex with each other. (Photo: Ed Zipco)

Moving in together. It's when a couple solidifies their relationship. It's the moment they affirm their commitment to one another and proclaim to the world that they are A Thing – the essential bridge between messy nights out and nights in on the sofa together watching 24 Hours in A&E and shopping online for hand soap.

But what does shared domesticity do to a couple's sex life? Is all sexual tension lost amid arguments about emptying the dishwasher and the mundanity of choosing what colour to paint the skirting board? Can humans really mate in captivity?

To find out, we asked some humans.

"THERE WAS MORE 'DUTY SEX'"

It was actually pretty weird. It wasn't better or worse – just very different. There was probably less frequency, but the "quality" was better – like a "we are making love in our nest" type of difference. Also, no more flatmates meant that we could do it whenever, wherever, without fearing someone bursting in. The fact that we lived together also meant that we didn't have to have sex every time we slept in the same bed, so we became more comfortable with the "not having sex" stage of the relationship. It also meant we started to experiment more.

On the other hand, difficult times were more clearly illustrated through lack of sex. And there also was more "duty sex" – the "sex just to make the numbers" type of sex. Which was pretty shit.

Carla, 30

READ ON THUMP: This Video of Americans Explaining Dubstep is Pissing Off the Entire Internet

"FOR THE PAST YEAR WE'VE BEEN IN AN OPEN RELATIONSHIP, AND THAT'S BEEN ROCKY"

I guess we did the whole thing in reverse, because we were cohabiting before we were even dating. I'd just moved to a new city. I'd planned to crash on his couch, but then we hooked up and I ended up moving straight into his bedroom. At the very beginning I was young and immature, so we both had to be wasted out of our minds – but once we got over that, it was like this non-stop love and intimacy fest.

That was two-and-a-half years ago. We both have crazy schedules so we rarely saw each other, and that built resentment. You feel the absence, but because you're living together you never feel like you have to make a plan. When you live together, because you're sleeping in the same bed every night, sex can end up feeling like an obligation. Our sex life is better now that we've moved out – when we're sleeping together it's by choice, not by necessity.

Also, for the past year we've been in an open relationship, and that's been rocky. He's Southern European and super-romantic, and he had a hard time with that. So we needed to re-evaluate with a little bit of distance, and since we moved out I feel way closer to him. That was actually just two weeks ago – but it's chill, or at least medium-chill, to talk about it.

Davis, 24

To have him moving in from the beginning was great because we could have as much sex as we wanted, and it really intensified the experience of feeling like a couple. I mean, I hear new couples talk about how they do it seven times a day or whatever – that wasn't quite us, but to me the amount was perfect.

We were both always away a lot, so when we were together it was special. Now things have evolved in a way that we need more space, and I'd say moving out has really helped the way we relate to each other physically and emotionally. It's brought more romance to the idea of getting together – it's made our relationship stronger.

We've had ups and downs, but we work on things and have good communication. I don't think we've ever had a bad sex life – I mean, he's a contortionist and I'm a yoga teacher; how bad is sex ever really going to be?

Paulo, 24

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"SHE MADE ME FUCK HER WHILE SHE STARTED INTENTLY AT BOTH ME AND HERSELF IN THE MIRROR"

We'd had a messy, on-off relationship for years, but the shit hit the fan when my landlord decided not to renew my tenancy after three years. Reality hit hard. There was simply nothing in London even close to the £450 I'd been paying. That was when I had my bright idea – we should do a couples' house. Three rooms, three couples. I'm a genius, right?

Over the year she and I lived together we just got more and more resentful. Right from day one, cohabitation reinforced how much we wished the other person would change, to be more like who we wanted them to be. Sex became more and more infrequent, and eventually I started weaponising my slightly lower sex drive – to deny her sex at crucial moments, as my way of expressing how angry I was for other reasons. It was fucking horrible, really.

It became increasingly clear to her that I was just waiting for our contract to run out. This became a real emotional drain. She dragged us on a fucking mini-break to Amsterdam to relight the flame. I hated that she was making me spend money I didn't have on a trip I'd rather do with people I actually liked. We didn't have sex that weekend.

Things came to a head after a particularly nasty night where I drank too much, had a line or three and threw a bottle of wine through a window. I moved on to the sofa for the final few months of our contract.

We always had good sex (when we were having sex), but it was really the post-relationship encounters I remember. That's when something else came out: the dirty talk, the seedy, exhibitionist sex with something to prove – half trying to pleasure, half trying to intimidate. The final time was the best. She took me back to her new flat – it was much nicer than my new place, with a full-length mirror against the wall. She made me fuck her while she stared intently at both me and herself (mostly herself). I pulled out and she arched her back a little further and whispered, "Don't hurt me too much" – the invite to have her in the ass as well.

Despite the fact that our co-habitation was a total misery for us both, my lingering memory of her will always be her reflection in that mirror – all the resentment, power-play and helplessness washed away.

Jamie, 26

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"NOW WE HAVE OUR OWN PLACE WE CAN EXPERIMENT"

I think our sex life changed drastically because the space became both of ours, so it was happening in different places, rather than just the bedroom: the kitchen, the living room, the shower, the couch. I hated his old apartment, and I had flatmates, so now that we have our own place there's a level of comfort that allows for way more experimentation.

Also, because we both travel a lot, when we're in the apartment together it becomes this place of extreme intimacy. When we get home it all becomes extra heightened and special – like, OK, now this is connection time.

Jenny, 27

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"YOU TOUCH THIS, I TOUCH THAT, THEN WE COME"

I was with Giuliana for five years. Six months was a long-distance relationship, then a year-and-a-half in a small room in a shared apartment, then really living together.

I think every relationship starts off with a lot of sex, then it tails off whether you are living together or not. But this was my first time living with a girl, and it was interesting to observe the rhythm that developed, where during the week not much would happen, then Saturday morning was, like, sex time. That was just when we had time together without being tired – but it can become a bit regular.

The sex itself was always quite good, but a bit of routine crept in – like, you touch this, then I touch that, then we come. But we found ways of making it new, like exploring tantric practices together, which was really exciting. You have to be creative and make sure not to take each other for granted.

Then she moved away, and the problem was we saw each other rarely, and there was pressure to have a really great time in the days we had together. So, really, that was what caused the problems.

Stefan, 31

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Again: not the plane in question, just a nice photo of the same aircraft model (Photo via Aero Icarus)

In quiet moments, it gets to me. In the middle of the night, where the light is blue and black, I'm there with my eyes bolt open, thinking about it. Thinking: what happened to you, Person Who Did A Shit So Bad On a British Airways Plane That It Had to Turn Around and Come Back Again? Prithee: when did thine shits return back to normal? And then I think: if I am thinking about the Person Who Did A Shit So Bad On a British Airways Plane That It Had to Turn Around and Come Back Again, what is the Person Who Did A Shit So Bad On a British Airways Plane That It Had to Turn Around and Come Back Again thinking? Are they thinking about that shit? More to the point: are there ever any moments when they are not thinking about the shit they did, the one that landed the plane? Do their cheeks still glow with the furnace of embarrassment? Or does life go on? How long until they could sit down comfortably again?

§

A year ago today, so the most-shared headline I've ever written goes, Someone Did a Shit So Bad On a British Airways Plane That It Had to Turn Around and Come Back Again. This is a fact. This happened. The plane was going from Heathrow to Dubai, but 30 minutes in it had to turn around and come back. This was because someone did some damage to the plane toilet using their butt and butthole, and it was considered a safety hazard to keep flying, because the butt crime was in danger of poisoning the air. A BA employee known only as 'Sarah', to the BBC, at the time of the incident: "When you're up at that altitude the cabin has to be pressurised so the problem is that anything like that is actually a health and safety problem because only 50 percent of the air is being recycled and cleaned." Tory councillor Abhishek Sachdev, a passenger who was delayed 15 hours waiting for the next flight to Dubai after the incident, euphoric on repumped turd air: "Insane. Our BA flight to Dubai returned back to Heathrow because of a smelly poo in the toilet." This shit changed people's lives. This shit ruined holidays and launched media careers. This shit was talked about. When was the last time something you did got discussed by Greg James on Radio 1? Good or bad? Was it never?

In the grand scheme of things, this bad shit is more significant than many of us, and yes, I include myself in that. And yet the name of the shit doer remains a mystery.

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This just makes me think about the person who did the shit ever more, about who they might be and what they might be feeling. This is what has been keeping me occupied for twelve straight months, attempting to profile them in my head for a year. What I have so far is:

i. The shit-doer is almost certainly a man. Listen: I have been trying to brush up on my feminism, I really have. And one central tenet of feminism seems to be: do not assume men are the answer to everything. It is so entrenched that a man should do job x, or head up team y, or do shit z in aeroplane toilet α, and we need to rail against that ingrained assumption, we need to think bigger. We need to consider that women are involved just as much if not more so. But in this instance I refuse to believe a woman did a shit so bad it made a plane fall to the ground. I have been in a bathroom after men. I have been into a bathroom after women. A man did this shit, with his man anus;

ii. You have to assume that the shit-doer was having a subnormal digestion day. Somebody with a longstanding poo disease – the kind that can render an aeroplane bathroom medically inadvisable in ten minutes flat – is not going to get on a seven-hour flight to Dubai. They are going to dink around that one. They are going to get a train to France to their holidays, nothing more exotic than that. Anything more than an hour from home is dangerous territory. They are going to bring their own supply of water because they do not trust French taps. But the BA Heathrow–Dubai shitter, in my opinion, was not expecting this to happen out of their body in any way at all. They were on a hangover, or something. They went to someone's house and had chicken the day before and it was pink in the middle but they were too polite to say something. Nothing too unordinary. But then: then something unordinary came out of them, at high speed, and got up and indeed around the toilet they were aiming for, and grounded a plane for 15 hours;

iii. I like to imagine the moment of sheer panic the shit-doer had to experience post-shit when they realised that the plane toilet was ill-equipped to mop up what they had done to anything close to a satisfactory level. Like: were there people waiting outside the toilet door that they had to play through-the-door chicken with? You know the game: you have to leave the toilet, but you've done a life-changing and uncleanable shit in it, and someone is waiting but their patience will only run to about eight minutes or so, so you just sit there – perfect silence, single bead of sweat undulating on the end of your nose – and you wait it out, in your poo prison, the absolute lowest moment of your life, until they leave;

iv. How do you live your life after an incident such as this? How do you even make it to Dubai? You turn up a day later than expected and everyone who is meeting you there has heard about the poo plane. "Were you on it?" they're saying, desperately. "Did you see who did the poo?" And you laugh nervously and go: haha, no. And then you try and enjoy your week in Dubai with the sun and sand and excess, but you can't – you can't relax unless you're within 100 metres of a toilet, you can't sleep without reimagining yourself back in that cubicle. The flight home is shitless hell. And then you get home, back to your base toilet, but nothing feels the same anymore. Are... are you afraid to shit? You are. The last time you shat it grounded a plane. Nothing will be the same again, now. You will carry this boulder around with your forever;

You would be right to think: hold on, Joel, do you not exactly fit the profile of the poo bandit? You do seem to know a lot about this mythical person. Are you not a man in a panic, capable of doing a shit? I am all of those things and more. But I am not the poo bandit. I am just a man who has spent a full year inhabiting a mental space where a poo bandit can live, trying to understand them from the inside out, from every angle, from mouth to arsehole. I feel like I understand the poo bandit better than they understand themselves. If you line up every person who was on that flight from Heathrow to Dubai, and let me look them each in the eye, I would tell you who done the shat. I would look at the pain and the fear and the weakness inherent within them and say: this, this is the shitter. This man did the shit.

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If you are reading this, anonymous plane-shitter, know that you are forgiven. That you made a mistake, but that we all do. A year ago you did a shit. A shit that affected the fundamental workings of a multi-million pound aircraft, but a simple shit nonetheless. We all do this. We all make mistakes. Let he who is without sin – let he who hath not had six pints of Guinness then a curry the night before an intercontinental flight – cast the first stone. Be at peace, plane shitter. Put that poop to bed.

@joelgolby

More stuff from VICE about shitting on planes:

Someone Did a Shit So Bad On a British Airways Plane That It Had to Turn Around and Come Back Again

Someone Did a Shit So Bad On a British Airways Plane That It Had to Turn Around and Come Back Again

Someone Did a Shit So Bad On a British Airways Plane That It Had to Turn Around and Come Back Again

Jared Fogle, former Subway spokesperson. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

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Jared Fogle, the disgraced Subway spokesman who pleaded guilty to charges of child pornography and traveling for sex with minors back in November, was jumped by a fellow inmate at Colorado's Englewood prison in January, according to a TMZ report.

Fogle reportedly got his ass kicked by 60-year-old Steven Nigg, leaving the former sandwich salesman "with a bloody nose, swollen face, and scratches on his neck," according to documents obtained by the gossip outlet. It was hardly a fight, as Fogle was said to—probably wisely—not fight back, leaving Nigg with only "a small cut on his left hand" sustained from the power of his own blows.

TMZ hit up Nigg's family, who were apparently less than shocked about the incident. Nigg, who's in prison on weapons charges, is reportedly distraught that his spot houses so many sex offenders, and Fogle's arrival was the last straw.

We also can't say we're completely surprised. When VICE asked inmates how Fogle would be treated in prison last year, they suggested he'd be singled out as a celebrity "chomo," which is prison slang for someone who's believed to be a child molester.

This piece was published in partnership with The Influence.

"Molly" and high-profile molly-related deaths have generated much media attention in recent years, raising questions about the safety of the drug and the substances often sold in its name (never assume molly is MDMA).

But the small number of deaths compared to the swaths of young people ingesting the drugs at festivals and clubs suggests it's not quite as dangerous as headlines make it sound. As with all psychoactive substances, the vast majority of users get high with no significant health problems. Still, for a few, a night intended for dancing can end up deadly.

We know that the mechanism of most MDMA-related deaths is similar to overheating (which is exacerbated by hot club or festival environments), and that a small dose is a safer dose. But the significant overlap of recreational and fatally toxic doses—in addition to the survival of peers who take molly in the same environment as friends who end up sick—makes it difficult to determine why some people have such adverse reactions when others seem fine.

The idea that some people die from an "MDMA allergy" has arisen as a potential explanation.

To account for unexplained MDMA-related deaths, some have proposed the theory that an enzyme deficiency, sometimes described as an "allergy," leaves certain individuals unable to metabolize the drug, and more susceptible to its toxicity. Most comprehensive texts on MDMA, like Julie Holland's 2001 book Ecstasy: The Complete Guide: A Comprehensive Look at the Risks and Benefits of MDMA and research summarizing the literature on MDMA toxicity, note the theory, without necessarily endorsing it.

Others, however, have taken to the theory with more confidence. The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDCP), for example, recommends in a 2015 guide to MDMA harm reduction that first-time users take a "quarter dose" of around 20-30 mg, "sometimes called an 'allergy test'" because "a portion of the population has a deficiency in a liver enzyme are more susceptible to the acute effects of MDMA (Tucker et al., 1994), since a deficiency in this enzyme could substantially impair elimination of MDMA, leading to higher and sustained concentrations of MDMA in the body. This could subsequently increase the risk of clinical symptoms including hyperthermia, hypertension, tachycardia, seizures, serotonin syndrome, and rhabdomyolysis."

Most researchers have since been unable to prove the theory. Recently, many are instead ditching it for more complex descriptions of how enzymes may affect MDMA toxicity.

A 2012 review of the literature, authored by Rafael de la Torre, the lead researcher on several articles laying out the theory, concluded that the enzyme "may have less impact on the risk of acute toxicity than previously thought." That study did say that one "bias" worth taking into account is that the research involves small sample sizes," and within them, "poor metabolizers" are underrepresented, "probably because of the acute effects experienced."

Still, as this and other studies note, robust research into the enzyme theory has found that MDMA toxicity is too complicated to explain so simply. One 2002 study concluded that "ecstasy-related deaths are rare and complex events, which have so far defied adequate explanation." It adds that "there appear to be other metabolic mechanisms that compensate for the poor metabolism of these drugs by CYP2D6."

The notion of an enzyme deficiency that manifests as somewhat of an "allergy" to MDMA—or predisposition to health risks—has remained folklore nonetheless. On the internet and the party scene, the enzyme theory serves as a stand-in for some of the mysteries around MDMA-related deaths that scientists have not been able to fully explain. Looking to the science, though, it's not a useful harm-reduction philosophy to promote.

"There are other metabolic pathways for MDMA," Rick Doblin, the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a group currently studying MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant PTSD, tells The Influence.

"We don't think CYP2D6 deficiency really matters. About 10 percent of the US population are CYP2D6-deficient, and there aren't 10 percent of users showing any consistent problems."

This article was originally published by The Influence, a news site that covers the full spectrum of human relationships with drugs. Follow The Influence on Facebook or Twitter.

Judge Merrick Garland at the federal courthouse in Washington in 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

On Wednesday morning, President Barack Obama announced he was nominated Merrick Garland to the spot on the US Supreme Court left vacant when arch-conservative Antonin Scalia died last month. The 63-year-old Garland is the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, a veteran of the Department of Justice, and a finalist for the last two SCOTUS seats filled by Obama. He's a relatively safe, expected choice—and one that still faces a steep uphill battle to being confirmed before the November general election.

Noting that he consulted every member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, several bar associations, and people from across the political spectrum before making his choice, Obama said in a press conference he went with "one of America's sharpest legal minds."

"To find someone who just about everybody not only respects but genuinely likes–– that is rare," the president said. "But that speaks to who Merrick Garland is not just as a lawyer, but as a man."

In advance of Obama's announcement, Senate Republicans promised to block his choice regardless of who he picked, preferring to wait until the general election gives the nation a new president. On Tuesday, Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a statement that reiterated this.

"Everyone knows this president won't be filling the current vacancy. Nonetheless, the president has indicated he intends to submit a nomination," Grassley wrote. "That's OK. He's constitutionally empowered to make the nomination. And the Senate holds the constitutional power to withhold consent, as we will."

Grassley also praised Scalia, who famously pushed the idea that the Constitution is not a "living document" but should be interpreted based on what it meant to the men who signed it over 200 years ago. "The temptation to apply their own views rather than the Constitution has always lurked among the justices," Grassley wrote. "And Americans know all too well in recent decades that the Supreme Court has done this regularly."

Democrats see this refusal to even consider an Obama nominee as yet more obstructionism from a Republican Party that's become famous for such tactics. According to the Washington Post, who first broke the news of Garland's selection, a four-page document was circulated earlier this week called "Read What Republicans Had to Say About President Obama's Supreme Court Nominee, Merrick Garland, Before He Was President Obama's Supreme Court Nominee." The briefing material highlights Garland's previous support from Republicans, including including Senators Orrin Hatch and Lindsay Graham, both current members of the Judiciary Committee.

Notably, when Bill Clinton nominated Garland to be a federal judge in 1995, he was praised by some Republicans. "Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, who is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has lauded Mr. Garland," the New York Times noted at the time. "The senator's aides have described Mr. Garland as fine a nominee as Republicans could hope to get from a Democratic president."

In fact, Garland may be too much of a moderate for many on the left, having sided with the government in previous cases involving Guantanamo Bay inmates and the rescheduling of marijuana. In 2010, when he was being considered as a replacement for Justice John Paul Stevens, the Post noted that "a small but vocal group of activists is privately saying that Garland is not liberal enough to replace the legendary Stevens... They say Garland is a centrist, who won't champion liberal concerns, too often finds middle ground with his conservative colleagues."

In other words, he's the sort of judge who would probably be in shoo-in for the nation's highest court if this weren't an election year.

Obama acknowledged this during his speech, and implored the GOP to give his nominee a fair shake. The president said that failure to give Garland a hearing and a vote would cause the reputation of the Supreme Court, faith in our justice system, and our democracy as a whole to suffer.

"I have fulfilled my constitutional duty," he said. "Now, it's time for the Senate to do theirs. Presidents do not stop working in the final year of their term; neither should a senator."

Follow Allie Conti on Twitter.